Call for Submissions: Boston Responds to the Financial Crisis

While earlier this week we heard assurances that Massachusetts was one of a handful of states that had not yet entered a recession, today we heard that Massachusetts is now in (or on the verge of being in) a recession after all. If we are lucky, the economy will hold there for what will probably be a long time and we will escape a worse fate. If we are not, we will experience a situation that will give lie to the old saw "a recession is when your neighbor gets laid off, a depression is when you do."

A depression is far, far worse than that. Imagine a Massachusetts with 25% official unemployment and 30-40% real unemployment. Imagine a Massachusetts with prices 5 times higher than they are today. Imagine all the state government cuts that the Libertarian Party wants and then some, a collapse of multiple local governments, a huge increase in homeless and a related appearance of shantytowns of the type already springing up in places like Nevada, a significant rise in the starvation already gripping more people than government statisticians are allowed to admit, and people starting to emigrate to other nations just like much-derided economic refugees from elsewhere have been coming here for over 100 years.

Either way, recession or depression, if ever there was a time for the local left-wing to show its stuff ... this is it. So we'd like to give you all a chance to take your best shot in our pages.

Open Media Boston is announcing a Call for Submissions for a special section we'll launch shortly called "Boston Responds to the Financial Crisis." We're looking for the best thinking the Boston-area left has to offer about how we can survive and potentially thrive in a situation that is most definitely going to get worse before it gets better.

So we invite folks to start thinking about submitting essays (and potentially audio and video productions) created for a mass audience representing your particular corner of the broad progressive spectrum.

Analysis will be welcome, research is also helpful, but strategy is what we're most keen to see.

Our editors and advisors will look at each submission, and decide what will run and what won't - though most submissions will likely make the cut.

If you're interested in getting us something - with an open deadline for the next few weeks - please contact as soon as possible at info@openmediaboston.org.

But before you do that, we'd appreciate it if you spread the word to every organization, network, and faction you know. And we'd especially appreciate it if you'd get the leadership of non-profit organizations, unions, and political parties keyed into this effort.

That's the basic deal. Let's see what you've got.